Page "Church of Christ, Scientist" Paragraph 68

This issue is most controversial regarding children.

In a number of nationally publicized cases in the early 1990s, prosecutors charged parents belonging to the Christian Science church with murder or manslaughter after their children died of likely curable ailments without being medically treated.

The best-known of these was the Twitchell Case in Massachusetts, in which parents David and Ginger Twitchell were convicted in 1990 of involuntary manslaughter in the death of their two-year-old son Robyn, who succumbed to a bowel obstruction.

In other cases, parents have been legally exonerated — often because of exemptions in state laws to taking legal action against people who relied on religious cures.

Such cases are also controversial inside the Church.

Many members believe that the parents involved received poor guidance from church leaders, while others contend that the process of healing through Christian Science was not done correctly.